What Does God Really Want?

In many a philosophical conversations with people about religion and the Bible's view of animals, I hear many interesting arguments on various sides. The one view point that amuses and angers me the most is the idea that an entity, known as God, put everything on this planet for us to do with as we wish.

The plants and animals are ours to manipulate and utilize however we see fit, without worry or recrimination on the method in which we choose to use. Now, understand this, I am a moderate person, I try not to force my lifestyle beliefs on anyone, because I would not want that done to me, but let us look at this argument objectively.

If you believe in this theory as it states in the bible, do you really believe that God meant for his creations, yes animals would classify as his children too, to live and die in pain and agony? Victims of the numerous cruel animal industries across the world?

Why is the pain and suffering of non-humans so irrelevant to us? Whether you eat meat or not, suffering should not be a plight that is ignored. Once we separate ourselves from another being for any reason, whether for species, religious, cultural, racial, or geographical reasons, we set ourselves on a path of "dehumanizing" them. This path can lead to many things, including genocide.

Maybe "dehumanizing" is an outdated word, because it seems that the compassion we should feel for our fellow man and woman, we should also extend to all species on this planet that share our same fate in the world.

We are all connected, once we see that, the world as we know it will forever be changed. I hope to see that day before my eyes fade, and I move forth from this existence.

Voting for change is not something we only do during elections, but steps we take everyday in our lives to improve the world that nurtured us. A friend said to me today, that the only person who was not 99% self-centered, was Mother Theresa. I disagree with that statement.

Indeed Mother Theresa was a selfless individual. She was most likely not a perfect being, none of us are. She made a choice to see what good she could be to the world. In fact, we all have our Mother Theresa's inside of us. We choose to silence her, because the path is not always easy, or fun, or lead to personal gain as we understand it.

The process to true understanding takes lifetimes, and we are all in different places in our journeys. Enlightenment occurs once we are aware of our place in the journey. Where are you?